Microsoft 365 is a third-party hosted email solution that has firewall restrictions and utilizes dynamic server connections. Integration with Microsoft 365 through a Blackbaud Hosting Services database is not possible at thiis time due to the following:

Microsoft maintains a secure, multi-tenet data storage solution that stores client data in a geographically distribued manner that shares hardware resources with other clients, and requires that certain firewall ports be open on the client side. These include: Port 443, 25, 587, 143/993, 995, and 80 amoung others and depending on what needs synchronization.

Blackbaud Hosting Services is also a muti-tenent environment. Due to security and stability concerns, Blackbaud requires a connection to a single, static server with a known IP proxy and exchange server location.

In this configuration, you login with your domain\username and password, just as if you logged into your own network exchange mailbox.

When the same or another user starts another session and opens Outlook, the integration looks for that exact same location.

Each time the Citrix session ends, the tunnel connection is broken and also ends the Outlook connection, so there is not a constant connection to an exchange server.

Given that with Microsoft 365 the IP will be change each session, as well as Microsoft’s own documentation (Microsoft TechNet and Security and Compliance articles on email integration) stating that individual mailboxes will / can be spread over multiple servers, it’s impossible to get the required connection to work for both a solid, constant connection as well as finding the user mailbox.

We cannot open back end ports on servers as required by the documentation and maintain a secure environment for all clients.

If you have any further questions, please create a case or reach out to Blackbaud Hosting Services.